Desertification risk fuels spatial polarization in 'affected' and 'unaffected' landscapes in Italy
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F86652079%3A_____%2F22%3A00553578" target="_blank" >RIV/86652079:_____/22:00553578 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-04638-1" target="_blank" >https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-04638-1</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-04638-1" target="_blank" >10.1038/s41598-021-04638-1</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Desertification risk fuels spatial polarization in 'affected' and 'unaffected' landscapes in Italy
Original language description
Southern Europe is a hotspot for desertification risk because of the intimate impact of soil deterioration, landscape transformations, rising human pressure, and climate change. In this context, large-scale empirical analyses linking landscape fragmentation with desertification risk assume that increasing levels of land vulnerability to degradation are associated with significant changes in landscape structure. Using a traditional approach of landscape ecology, this study evaluates the spatial structure of a simulated landscape based on different levels of vulnerability to land degradation using 15 metrics calculated at three time points (early-1960s, early-1990s, early-2010s) in Italy. While the (average) level of land vulnerability increased over time almost in all Italian regions, vulnerable landscapes demonstrated to be increasingly fragmented, as far as the number of homogeneous patches and mean patch size are concerned. The spatial balance in affected and unaffected areas-typically observed in the 1960s-was progressively replaced with an intrinsically disordered landscape, and this process was more intense in regions exposed to higher (and increasing) levels of land degradation. The spread of larger land patches exposed to intrinsic degradation brings to important consequences since (1) the rising number of hotspots may increase the probability of local-scale degradation processes, and (2) the buffering effect of neighbouring (unaffected) land can be less effective on bigger hotspots, promoting a downward spiral toward desertification.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
10510 - Climatic research
Result continuities
Project
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Continuities
I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace
Others
Publication year
2022
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Scientific Reports
ISSN
2045-2322
e-ISSN
2045-2322
Volume of the periodical
12
Issue of the periodical within the volume
1
Country of publishing house
GB - UNITED KINGDOM
Number of pages
11
Pages from-to
747
UT code for WoS article
000742753500040
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-85123068191